Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished

VINYL FORMAT. This double album serves well as an introduction point to Animal Collective, repackaging their first two releases which, whilst gathering a certain amount of critical acclaim in the US, had little or no distribution elsewhere. Described by TimeOut NY as "the discovery of the year...", the Collective's first offering was a stunning collaboration between Avey Tare and Panda Bear called Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished, released on their own label (Animal) in August of 2000. Chiming laments for a childhood's end, the album opens with the phrase "want to hear a secret, I know one," suggesting these secrets just might be buried deep within the flocks of high frequencies, electronic glitches, bleeps and swells that follow. The duo's approach is similar to Love's (circa Forever Changes), with Avey Tare's picked acoustic guitar flowing in perfect syncopation with Panda's tumbling drum kit. But the layers of tonal and atonal electronics that fatten the thinner pulse of the songwriter's vision make this album resemble something closer to modern electronic composition. The songs range from speedy patchwork pieces to slower piano melodies, a somehow coherent yet very fragile brand of psychedelic music.